Synonyms for confess
kənˈfɛscon·fess

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:2.0 / 1 vote

1. confess

   We accept another's statement; admit any point made against us; acknowledge what we have said or done, good or bad; avow our individual beliefs or feelings; certify to facts within our knowledge; confess our own faults; endorse a friend's note or statement; grant a request; own our faults or obligations; recognize lawful authority; concede a claim. Confess has a high and sacred use in the religious sense; as, to confess Christ before men. It may have also a playful sense (often with to); as, one confesses to a weakness for confectionery. The chief present use of the word, however, is in the sense of making known to others one's own wrong-doing; in this sense confess is stronger than acknowledge or admit, and more specific than own; a person admits a mistake; acknowledges a fault; confesses sin or crime. Compare APOLOGY; AVOW.

   Synonyms:
   accept, acknowledge, admit, allow, avow, certify, concede, disclose, endorse, grant, own, recognize

   Antonyms:
   cloak, conceal, cover, deny, disavow, disguise, disown, dissemble, dissimulate, hide, mask, repudiate, screen, secrete, veil

Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:1.0 / 1 vote

1. confess

   Synonyms:
   avow, aver, own, reveal, disclose, acknowledge

   Antonyms:
   disaver, disavow, suppress, silentiate, deny

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:1.0 / 5 votes

1. confess, squeal, finkverb

   confess to a punishable or reprehensible deed, usually under pressure

   Synonyms:
   oink, scab, fink, squeal, concede, profess, blackleg, rat

2. concede, profess, confessverb

   admit (to a wrongdoing)

   "She confessed that she had taken the money"

   Synonyms:
   yield, cede, pretend, grant, concede, profess, fink, squeal

3. confessverb

   confess to God in the presence of a priest, as in the Catholic faith

   Synonyms:
   fink, concede, squeal, profess

Matched Categories

1. • Admit

Dictionary of English SynonymesRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. confessverb

   Synonyms:
   acknowledge (as a crime or fault), own, avow

2. confessverb

   Synonyms:
   admit, grant, concede, recognize

3. confessverb

   Synonyms:
   attest, prove, show, exhibit, manifest, be proof of

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated WordsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. confessverb

   Synonyms:
   acknowledge, own, admit, avow, divulge, disclose, reveal

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:2.0 / 1 vote

1. List of paraphrases for "confess":

   admit, recognise, acknowledge, confession, say, recognize

Suggested Resources

1. Confess

   Admit vs. Confess -- In this Grammar.com article you will learn the differences between the words Admit and Confess.

How to pronounce confess?

How to say confess in sign language?

Words popularity by usage frequency

How to use confess in a sentence?

1. Sally Yates:

   I will confess, I did not anticipate there that we would have a -- literally a violent insurrection at the Capitol on January 6.

2. Ronald Reagan:

   This is the issue of this election : whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

3. G. C. Lichtenberg:

   Affectation is a very good word when someone does not wish to confess to what he would none the less like to believe of himself.

4. Abdul Ghani Hendi:

   All the thought which dominates the society is extremists' thoughts. We should confess that frankly.

5. Marzieh Amiri:

   They should have held a public trial, i am not angry with the government or the Supreme Leader (of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei). I am angry with extremist security forces who were on his case, trying to prove he was a spy and who maybe forced him to confess to things he hadn't done.